The Lone Star Showdown returns as Earley & Co. travel to No. 1 Texas

Head baseball coach Michael Earley and the red-hot Fightin' Texas Aggies will travel to Austin for a three-game set against No. 1 Texas. Earley joined us in-studio on Thursday's edition of TexAgs Live to preview the renewal of the rivalry and what he expects on the Forty Acres.

Key notes from Michael Earley interview

• I feel great with where we're at. I understand Texas is a rivalry, and it’s super important to a lot of people. It's important to us, too, but at the same time, we'll play this road game like we've played the last couple of road games. I feel like we're battle-tested. With how we've been playing on the road, I feel pretty good about it, but at the same time, you are only as good as your next one. We have to continue to play good baseball.
   
• It starts with the leaders on our team. It starts with me, the coaching staff and how we act and conduct ourselves. To us, it is really just business as usual. I want to win this game tomorrow just as bad as I wanted to win the game on Tuesday against Sam Houston. Our preparation won't change. Those are the things you fall back on, specifically with SEC road games that are really important.
   
• Any time you play big games, big atmospheres, it puts another notch in your belt. I'm not out there playing, so I can enjoy watching these guys play. For these guys to have that experience, some have played there. Playing in a place like Arkansas really hardens you. That is a really tough place to play. TV doesn't do it justice. Getting to have experience right before, you couldn't have asked for better preparation.
   
• Sam Houston has struggled this year, but they have some tough kids over there who really play hard. They can beat you. You have a day off, and with Easter, kids are travelling all over the state. I was really proud of how mature they were and how great they were at practice on Monday. With a game like that sandwiched between Arkansas and Texas, you never know. Anyone can beat anyone. I was really proud of the professionalism and how they took care of business.
   
• Blake Binderup’s power is real. It's not just the power. It's good at-bats. It's timely hitting. Something about it that I've really liked is when he's gone down in the count, he’s got the count back to even or full and had a chance to do something. That guy takes the coaching, and he's done a really good job. He's had some struggles this year, like anyone else, but credit to him for staying with it. He has really, really stayed with it even when he wasn't playing well.
   
• It’s very difficult to make those mechanical adjustments. Even though we are trying to simplify him, we are asking him to do something he's never done before in his life. Tuesday against Sam Houston, we made an adjustment, but we thought it could be better. To ask him to make another one right before the weekend, and for him to be able to do it, it's a credit to his buy-in. I think I said after the game, if we asked Binderup to hit left-handed, he would do it. He has some real skills. It's just how we get him in a spot to make those skills more consistent. I think we're on to something.
   
• Caden Sorrell, it's funny because I wanted to see him run around the outfield before the game at Arkansas, and the first ball hit is a liner over his head. He turns, runs and jumps. I hold my breath. He catches it, and everything is fine. He went right into the lineup after that. He could probably have played the outfield a week and a half before we actually played him.
   
• You can see how important Sorrell is to our team. He is everything we thought he would be. It stinks we had to wait for him, but getting him back out there on defense is big, too. I'm sure you remember how good of an outfielder that guy is. He’s not just a hitter. That guy was a really, really good outfielder with big-time catches. Having him back, we still want to stay cautious, but at some point, it's time to play.
   
• Gavin Grahovac has been great. I love seeing him, and I hate seeing him every single day. He's been awesome, but it's been tough on him. I told him when he made the decision that this was probably terrible for him, but he's going to grow so much from it. When you can sit back, watch baseball and not have to play, you learn so much about the game. It won't be as good as him playing, but that guy can play. He grew up the son of a coach, so he has some good insight. He'll say some stuff in the game or at practice. A guy like that, his leadership skills and having him around, is a close second to him actually being on the field.
   
• Terrence Kiel II will be fine. He won't be phased by the moment. You knew the home run was coming for him because in batting practice, he is really good at hitting low line drives the other way. They throw it inside, and he has that pull side. I think more are coming. He's had some typical lapses as a freshman, but he continues to bring good at-bats. I thought Arkansas was great because he had a tough first couple of games, but one of the bigger hits he got was a ground ball up the middle to allow Jace LaViolette to hit the home run. He's awesome, and he won’t be phased by anything this weekend.
   
• Texas is a sound ball club. They pitch. They hit. They do a lot of things right. They throw strikes. They don't walk people. I think we're really similar if you look at statistics on both sides of the ball. We know how they are going to play. We know they are great at baseball and what they are trying to do, but that means nothing in baseball. It's not like football, where you can scheme.
   
• They are going to play clean baseball. They are a really good baseball team. We are going to have our hands full, especially on the road. They have some real talent in the batter's box. They have some professional baseball players and the same thing on the mound. Just like every SEC team, you are not going to have more talent than them. You just have to go play good baseball.
   
• It's a three-game series. We are playing three games, and they are all mapped out with how our bullpen is. Most importantly, it’s about my belief in Ryan Prager and the direction he has taken. He was better. Now, is it better by his standards? No, because one pitch got away from him, and the guy hit a home run. In my eyes, if that ball is caught in left field, who knows what the next batter does? It changes the whole narrative. Who knows what happens if the ball doesn't go off LaViolette's glove and go over the fence?
   
• Prager is trending in the right direction. I want him to pitch game one, always.
   
• Anything that is tough in life, in sports, whether it is self-inflicted or not, you have a choice to make: You can either run from it or run right to it. That’s my personality. Whenever things are tough, you hate it when it's tough. It feels good when everything's good, but there's always a small, dark place that, I kind of like, when things don't go right. I've never considered myself a baseball coach. I'm a problem solver. It's been good. I've learned a lot. Our team has learned a lot about ourselves. Just falling back on things we believe in and still believing in them when things aren't going right. Those core principles, you have to double down on if you really believe in them. I'm glad we have.
   
• We weren’t hitting great earlier this season. We kept our same routine, and we added on Mondays since Vanderbilt. These two strike drills we do... It's not a drill. It's a mindset. You just add it and keep it even when you've been doing well. It's about maintaining our core beliefs. When you make adjustments, it is not just a one-time phase. You have to keep moving on.
   
• You have to balance health. You have to balance mentally. If you have a guy struggling with slides, you have to make a choice about how that guy is mentally and what he needs so he gets carved on these slides. It depends on the health and mentality. You can’t just coach one player. You have to coach a team. I'm lucky to have the veteran leadership that I do, guys like Wyatt Henseler and Hayden Schott. They might not like a drill, but you would never know it. It’s similar to Braden Montgomery. He was a star but bought into what we were doing.
   
• Everyone outside our walls is talking about A&M and Texas, but inside our walls, they are talking about Penn and Columbia.